Sunday, February 8, 2009

How times have changed

My parents would always remark on things I did as a kid that would never have happened when they were kids. As a child on the cusp of the "Net-Generation", early computers made their way into our house when I was in elementary school. I remember our first "laptop", an IBM with a tiny (11" x 5" LCD) screen, a keyboard and it weighed at least 25 lbs.

When I was in middle school, I got a sound card for a Christmas gift, that I got to install in our desktop computer. It was very exciting, and I also got a CD-ROM drive that I also had to install in the computer (and I remember the rails not being the right size, so I taped Popsicle sticks to the sides of the drive so it rested in the bay properly).

Internet appeared in our house when I was 15, I quickly learned my way around, remember the days when internet wasn't unlimited? I had forgotten about that. I even set up my mom and dad with email addresses, they didn't have a computer, so I don't know why, but my dad still has the same address today.

When I was 16, I got a cell phone. It was $20/month and I had 60 minutes of talk time. I felt SO cool with that phone. I mean, a car AND a phone?

These days, my almost-3-year-old monkey knows to tell me to click on something on the computer, he knows how to use a mouse. He will never know life without email, blogs, cell phones, blackberries, iPods, and more. (He's even called grandma all on his own from my Blackberry). It is amazing to think of the mass amount of technological changes in the past 30 years.

Which brings me to the Monkey's most adorable statement this morning while playing with his pretend phone, "Mommy, I'm sending you a text message." I never would have said that when I was his age. :)

1 comment:

Unknown said...

lol that IS funny.... I remember that we had an Atari ST computer when I was very young and at first it had a black screen with green writing..... but sure enough I bought a mobile phone (well got one for my bday!) when I was about 15...

My husband (who is much older than myself) always says that 'his generation' never had all this technology and he feels as though technology has almost spoilt things....


Georgie too knows how to navigate the mouse using the computer and plays on old mobile phones - texting and calling.

It's amazing the difference!

Nyk xx